Bratwurst made across Bucyrus

Oct. 27, 2012

Written by

Mary Fox

Special to the Telegraph-Forum

Bob Hoelzel commented Haala owned what is known as People’s Meat Market, his sign in the window “Haala’s Bratwurst the genuine product contains veal and eggs.” Ed and Carl Haala, bratwurst makers, were sons of Anton from Bohemia, a Catholic family. Hoelzel said the first brat stand was operated by two deaf brothers named Reddick in front of a Charles Geiger’s (Geiger-Dobbins Market).

Geiger came here in 1922 from Sandusky. The business dissolved and Geiger operated the market with his son Robert. They went under in the great depression and the building was sold to the Heckert brothers.

Geiger was a son of John and Adelia Geiger, whose grandfather Rudolph was born in Germany, was the son of John K. Geiger, also a butcher. The Heckert family was from the Dobbins-Geiger school of making bratwurst. The Heckerts sold brats from their store on North Sandusky Avenue at the railroad.

Theodore and his brother, Gerald, were sons of Daniel and Anna Meisner Heckert of Michigan.

Evans Light was in the bratwurst business for nearly 50 years starting in the 1920s until retiring in 1978. Light learned the business by helping make sausages and frankfurters in the old Dobbins and Geiger Market. He claimed to be the only person living who was taught by a “well-educated old German gentleman” who brought his recipe from Germany in 1900. There were three corner stands in Bucyrus when he was a boy about WWI. As a boy, Light operated a meat market on the west side of North Sandusky Avenue about 100 feet south of Mary Street.

He later moved to the old Maudsley Grocery on South Spring Street. There was a movement to celebrate the popular bratwurst and he helped organize the festival and was parade marshall in 1982. He was a member of the First Christian Church.

Telegraph-Forum editor Dorothy Krantz wrote in her story August 1967: “The bratwurst from Carle’s Market is unique in the fact that it was made by Ruth Spiegel, and her sister Dorothy Carle, and her daughters Carla Spiegel (Koepke) and Christine Spiegel (Berry),” Carla said the bratwurst still has a feminine touch, made by Carolyn Kocher and Paula Betti. The Carle’s started making their brats around the close of World War II. Carle’s Market is well known all these years on East Mansfield Street, rebuilt as a German Chalet style.

Modern Market — modern meaning refrigeration — on North Sandusky Avenue near Irving opened in 1947 with Bill Judy the bratwurst impresario. Herman Baerkircher was the son of a German immigrant and the one who taught Judy the art of brat making. In later years, Judy worked for Foodland on South Sandusky Avenue. Judy said his bratwurst had a “secret,” and when he died people said the brats didn’t taste the same.

Herman G. Baerkircher moved his meat market from downtown to its location on north side in 1938. He passed away in 1955, son of Frederick and Sopia Lidle Baerkircher, survived by his son Judge Frederick who owned the store from 1969 to 1974. They were members of St. John’s Reformed Church.

Jack Ward and Russell Raifsnider also made bratwurst for the festival.

Bratwurst had been in the Clover Farm meat case for 11 years before the festival started. Meat manager Bruce Luzader said he followed an old German recipe, and he took it with him when he left. Paul Omlor’s Lane Street Market bratwurst was made by Roy Traxler, who remembered working with Bill Gearhart at Geiger’s. Gearhart made the sausages at Sternbaum’s Foodmart in 1953.

Questions and answers: Memories from the old Bob’s Sandwich Shop; by reader Jean Cheesman Zahn: She met her husband, Dick Zahn, at the sandwich shop and married Oct. 15, 1949. Her mother was a cook there, and when she passed away patrons said they missed her wonderful fried chicken.

If you are interested in genealogy or sharing a story email or write Crawford County Genealogy Society, Box 1033, Bucyrus, OH 44820 Mary Fox email Littlefox factory@columbus.rr.com